Mohammad Alaa Aljaleel, the Aleppo Man Who Stayed to Feed Cats

Originally published 2016-09-08.

Mohammad Alaa Aljaleel is a former electrician from Aleppo who became known around the world for one stubborn act of kindness. While millions of Syrians fled the civil war, he chose to stay in his city with his family and spend part of every day feeding the cats that departing families had left behind. By late 2015 he was caring for around 150 of them, on a budget of about $2.50 a day.

Mohammad Aljaleel Stayed in Aleppo to Care for Abandoned Cats

HOSAM KATAN/REUTERS

His story, first reported in detail by Newsweek in December 2015 and then shared widely, is small next to the scale of the war. That is also why it resonated: it showed what one person could still choose to do in a city where most choices had been taken away.

Who is Mohammad Alaa Aljaleel?

Before the war, Aljaleel worked as an electrician. When fighting engulfed Aleppo, he and his family weighed leaving like so many of their neighbours. According to Newsweek, he had prospects of finding work as a mechanic in Turkey. Instead they stayed, partly to help people who could not leave, and he took on a role nobody had asked him to fill: the unofficial carer of his neighbourhood's abandoned animals.

He explained his motivation in simple terms:

"I regard animals and humans in the same light. All of them suffer pain, and all of them deserve compassion." Mohammad Alaa Aljaleel, speaking to Newsweek

How a few strays became 150 cats

It started with a handful of cats picking through the ruins of a house destroyed in an airstrike. Feeding them felt like the obvious thing to do. Word travels fast among hungry animals, and five cats became dozens, then well over a hundred. Many were not street cats at all, but former house pets whose owners had fled or been killed.

He gave names to around thirty of them. For local children, who had few safe places left to play, the cats became a rare source of fun, and Aljaleel said he took real pride in the joy they brought.

Newsweek

A daily routine in a city at war

His routine was simple. Each day he went to a butcher and bought meat scraps for roughly $2.50. Knowing what the food was for, the butcher would sometimes give him a discount or add bones for free. He then walked a familiar route through the neighbourhood, where cats gathered as soon as they saw him.

The danger was constant. Aleppo was a front line for four years, and shelling and airstrikes could hit anywhere. Aljaleel told Newsweek: "Every day, when I leave my house, I know I might not return." He kept going anyway. At the time, Syria had no animal shelter, and he spoke of a dream of one day opening a shelter and an animal hospital.

Why so many pets were left behind

The Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, became one of the largest displacement crises of modern times. By 2022 an estimated 6.7 million Syrians were living as refugees, most of them in neighbouring countries such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, and millions more had been displaced inside Syria.

People escaping on foot, by bus or across the sea could rarely take animals with them. Animal welfare groups such as World Animal Protection have found that most people would prefer to evacuate with their pets, but in sudden disasters and wars that is often impossible. The result, in Aleppo and elsewhere, was thousands of abandoned cats and dogs in damaged streets, vulnerable to hunger, injury and disease.

A Free Syrian Army fighter feeds a cat bread in the old city of Aleppo, Syria, January 6, 2013. Credit: AP via Newsweek

Scenes like this one, photographed in Aleppo's old city in 2013, show that Aljaleel was not alone. Soldiers, shopkeepers and neighbours across Syria shared what little food they had with animals, often as a way of holding on to normal life.

Should people help animals when humans are suffering?

Some critics asked whether Aljaleel's time and money would be better spent on people. It is a fair question, and he was not ignoring human needs; his family stayed partly to help others in the city. But compassion is not a fixed budget. Caring for animals also cares for the people who loved them, many of whom had to make the painful choice to leave them behind. Abandoned animals can also spread disease and suffer slowly, problems that affect the whole community.

There is a wider point too. In a war, small acts of normal life, such as feeding a cat, letting children play, or keeping a routine, help people stay human. Aljaleel's cats gave his neighbourhood a little of that.

What happened next, and how to help animals in crises

The battle for Aleppo ended in late 2016 when government forces retook the eastern part of the city, and residents of the besieged districts were evacuated. Later media reports said Aljaleel continued caring for animals after leaving Aleppo and that his dream of a sanctuary took shape with international support, though we could not independently verify the details.

If his story moves you, there are practical ways to help animals caught in disasters and conflicts:

Support established animal welfare groups that run emergency response programmes and work with local carers.
Make an emergency plan for your own pets, including carriers, records and a place they could stay.
Back local rescuers through verified charities rather than unverified online appeals.

Aljaleel's daily walk with a bag of meat scraps will not end a war. It does show how much difference one person can make to the lives around them, two legs or four.

Sources: Newsweek (Rachel Nuwer): the man who stayed in Aleppo to feed its abandoned cats; Wikipedia: Syrian civil war. Photos: Hosam Katan/Reuters; Newsweek; AP.

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COMMENTS

BLOGGER: 1

UnknownSeptember 10, 2016 at 1:54 PM
thats beautiful. my first thought was why help cats when thrre are starving people in the world. BUT. a mans own passion is his priority. this article brought a single tear or two. thats magic. the loves his passion and its a passion of humility. i hope he builds his vet. i hope his passion keeps giving joy to the children and all that need companionship. thank you mr